It's OK, New Orleans—just keep thinking about how you got lucky at the draft lottery and landed Anthony Davis. It'll ease the pain.

As for Gordon's pain, there's little doubt the Hornets training staff is busy ascertaining just how best to ease it. For whatever it's worth, Gordon himself isn't sounding any alarms just yet. Via Chris Sheridan:

Just a little aggravation right now and I'm not very concerned. It's just something that you hate to deal with at this point and time. But at the same time, I’m looking forward to getting ready and progressing during camp.

Gordon had an impressive debut with NOLA, but it was also the game in which he first injured the knee that kept him out for 57 games.

Though Gordon had already missed significant chunks of time in his first three pro seasons, he missed 57 games in his first stint with New Orleans.

Still, it's hard to let this kind of talent just walk out the door.

A look at what a healthy Gordon can do for New Orleans.

The early-blooming shooting guard averaged more than 22 points during his final season in Los Angeles, establishing himself as one of the league's best young scorers with a consistent three-point stroke, strong finishing ability and at least six free-throw attempts per game. There's never been any doubt about what Gordon can do on the floor.

The trick is just keeping him on the floor.

Fortunately, the news isn't all bad. The injuries sidelining Gordon in 2010-11 were wrist-related; it wasn't until his first game as a Hornet that he incurred the cartilage damage that eventually required arthroscopic surgery.

Gordon re-aggravates the wrist that gave him so much trouble in 2010-11.

In other words, we're not necessarily looking at the kind of problem that haunts an entire career. To the extent the Hornets are now playing things safe, it's to avoid just that. An investment such as this one is worth protecting—even if it's an investment that's already begun raising eyebrows.

All will be forgotten soon enough if Gordon turns in a big-time season. For now, fans will be understandably impatient, eager to see their best players join his stand-out rookie teammates. The Hornets won't be in the title discussion this season, but they're closer to the postseason than anyone might have expected just a few months ago.

With so many reasons to believe this rebuilding project won't last long, the prospect of that project being derailed by injury is a scary one.

For now, such a scenario is no more than one of the worst-case variety, but that's hardly reassuring for a franchise that's suffered through so much bad news and transition over the last two years.

Given the risks of another wasted season, Gordon should take all the time he needs to rest his knee. New Orleans is going to need him.